Water flow may surge on Staunton River next week
Boaters, kayakers and other water-sports enthusiasts on the Staunton River — be aware.
Appalachian Power will change its water release from the Smith Mountain project’s Leesville Dam into the river for two days next week.
Appalachian Power will modify its release of water from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 27 and 28, said John Shepelwich, Appalachian corporate communications manager.
“We’re looking at primarily the gates that operate the flow of water through the dam,” Shepelwich said Thursday.
Water is normally released from Leesville Dam at about 700 cubic feet per second, while flows during the test will reach about 4,500 cubic feet per second. Appalachian will perform tests on two power generators and related equip-ment, requiring the power units to be brought to full loads for about an hour each, Shepelwich said. The gates will be open all the way, he said.
The tests are part of the company’s requirements under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Shepelwich said.
River users should not ex-pect dangerous conditions, but they could experience sudden changes in water flows in the afternoon on Aug. 27 and 28, Shepelwich said.
The increased flows will dissipate the farther down the river users travel, Shepelwich said.
The Smith Mountain Project is a 636-megawatt pumped storage hydroelectric facility that uses Smith Moun-tain Lake as an upper reservoir and Leesville Lake for a lower reservoir. Water in Smith Mountain Lake passes through turbine generators in the powerhouse to make electricity before it’s released into Lees-ville Lake. Most of the water is kept in Leesville Lake and pumped back into Smith Mountain Lake to be used again.
Part of the water travels through turbine generators at the Leesville powerhouse for additional electricity and to meet discharge requirements for the Smith Mountain Pro-ject’s operating license.
Appalachian Power provides electricity to 1 million customers in Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. Appalachian is part of Ameri-can Electric Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, with more than 5 million customers on 11 states.
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Reader Reactions
We cut through Gretna to get here. And you are right, the lake will drop. I was wrong, again, lol. We were up there a few weeks ago, and the lake was terribly low in the marina area. Seems like they would wait til the water was higher for things like this. But they are the experts, lol.
Randy: For you to see the Staunton River from Gretna, something would have to go VERY wrong, like a dam failure. Try Altavista/Hurt. And the Leesville Lake level won’t RISE, it will DROP, as the dam’s outflow is increased.
I think it is awesome how this project works. I wish the Staunton was closer to Danville so that we could watch it. But it isn’t quite worth it to drive clear to Gretna to see it. I would love to see a lake near Danville. We have Farmers Lake in Yanceyville, which is much larger than most people think. It has great fishing too, and is large enough for a boat. Anyway, be careful out there, I wonder how much and how fast the Leesville lake will rise?
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